Stand Up for This — a post-election prototype for high school students
Teaching young women to create their own local social impact
I’ve had many discussions sparked by this year’s presidential election. They motivated me to explore: how might we channel the energy and emotions for good in a rapidly changing American political reality? Since November 8th, many people have asked, “Where do we go from here?” I go back to causes core to my values: support of girl’s education and women in leadership.
In a sequence of serendipitous events, I have an opportunity to launch a seminar on activism and civic engagement at my all-girls middle/high school with a fellow alumna. We are developing Stand Up for This to focus on what we are calling Microcivics — the small actions we take everyday that can impact our immediate circle of friends, family, or school. As we start designing this program, we are seeking your ideas and feedback.
Centering on core values
My journey started the Friday post-election with a letter to alumnae from the Head of School of my middle/high school. She reminded us of the core values the school embodies and reassured us that now was not the time to lose hope in the future of women’s leadership. The following day, I ran into the Head of School at the local bakery and thanked her for the words of encouragement. I shared that I, like many others, was still processing exactly what the election’s implications are for women’s leadership in 2017, but that I knew I wanted to do something.
She mentioned that the school is experimenting with a new schedule this spring and perhaps I’d be interested to lead a seminar. Having recently moved back to the Bay Area from DC, I thought this could be a venue for me to share thoughts from my time in DC about what civic engagement means for young women.
When we imagine what it looks like to create change and stand up for what we believe in, the list of stereotypes includes: voting in elections, marching in the streets, or working in the White House. What about the smaller things we do, say, and share everyday? Although you might not be old enough to vote in high school, you can still find avenues to participate. What are those small actions that amplify as they spread among those you interact with?
The timing was perfect as I read this tweet from fellow alumna Katie Kirsch*. I reached out, and after a great meeting at Philz over coffee, I found a partner in this effort.
*Katie is a total rockstar — she is the co-founder of Girls Driving for a Difference, a not-for-profit organization focused on empowering middle school girls through design thinking and leadership workshops. I’m so excited to be partnering with her on this!
Moving beyond partisan politics
While processing our own thoughts and emotions post-elections, Katie and I agreed that we wanted to focus on activism and empowerment. Although the 2016 presidential election revealed a level of polarity in our country unlike anything we’ve seen before, we agreed that we can try to bridge the partisan divide by focusing on how might a young woman be civically engaged on a daily basis?
We are calling this idea Microcivics — the small things we do, say, and share everyday that can impact our immediate circle. For example, what kind of impact do we create by adding an “Of course, I’m a Feminist” sticker to our laptop, or by shopping at our local farmer’s market? How is Microcivics different for young women?
And that’s how “Stand Up to This” was born. To us, being an engaged citizen means more than visiting the ballot box every four (hopefully two) years, but civic activism can be demonstrated in actions we take everyday — often without realizing it:
- You drive a few extra miles to shop at your local farmer’s market → You likely care about sustainable agriculture and supporting local small businesses.
- You listen to and contribute to your public radio station → You likely care about freedom of the press.
- You bring and use steel utensils to your cafeteria rather than use the disposable ones → You likely care about reducing waste and climate change.
We hope this seminar (6-7 hours over the course of a month) will be a chance for personal exploration on one’s core values. Through self-reflection, human-centered design, and civic innovation, we hope students can discover an issue they want to impact, develop a personal mission statement, and design an action plan for creating change and making an impact within their immediate circle of friends, family, school (or beyond).
Making Civics 101 cool again
As we prepare to launch our seminar “Stand Up to This” in January, we would love your ideas and input — any inspiration from YouTube videos, to change-makers you admire, to super cool organizations in civic education. In particular, anything targeting youth or girls/women would be awesome!
We anticipate this class will also serve as a chance for our own personal exploration. While we might uncover some new areas of passion, at our core, we are motivated to empower youth, in particular girls and women, to find their voice in the democratic process. We think starting with the concept we’ve termed Microcivics, we can discover those small actions we could take that can have a ripple effect. We are excited to prototype this seminar and share our journey with you!
